


gold rush

by pumpkinspicedshaniac



Category: Ghosts (TV 2019)
Genre: How Do I Tag, M/M, Pining, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, perhaps mutual?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:40:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29140908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pumpkinspicedshaniac/pseuds/pumpkinspicedshaniac
Summary: Pat dreams of a future with the Captain, and they spend time together.
Relationships: Pat Butcher/The Captain (Ghosts TV 2019)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 31





	gold rush

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a short one but I'm fairly happy with it anyway. The title is a song by Taylor Swift and went a long way in inspiring me to write this.

They’d live somewhere in the Cotswolds. A nice, old house, with lots of history and crumbling stone that they spend hours repairing but would laugh about in the end. A big garden, Pat thought, overgrown at first but one they could easily wrestle into shape. A garden where you could sit and watch the world go by, where they could grow vegetables, sunbathe in the summer, walk hand-in-hand through the snow. Plenty of space for animals and new memories.

He decided it would be quiet. Somewhere you could hear the birds in the morning. Somewhere they could forget their nightmares and heal together. The Captain would like that, Pat was quite sure of it. But, like the man himself, that house was just one dream too far.

With a world-weary sigh usually uncharacteristic of him, Pat turned over in bed. Nights on end he spent like this, gazing at the moon peeking through his curtains, and imagining it shining down on a happier scene. Not that Button House was a terribly unhappy place. Pat adored the busy energy of the house, how it was bursting with life – or death, he supposed. And it had only gotten better since Alison and Mike arrived; they’d given the old home new life. But it was still too much sometimes. When Julian and Thomas were fighting, when Robin was cracking terrible jokes and Fanny’s moaning got incessant, Pat wished he could be far away from it all. Somewhere quiet, like that cottage in the Cotswolds, where he wouldn’t look out to the old tree stump on the lawn and feel a pain that never numbed.

And he wished he could take the Captain with him. He saw the pain and helplessness in the man’s eyes. Pat knew a lost soul when he saw one, and his compassionate side ached to help him, to love him. Pat wished he could be brave enough to tell him so. He knew it wouldn’t be as easy as just confessing his feelings. Hell, the Captain didn’t even know how to handle his own. He worked on a strict policy of deny all and carry on. Pat couldn’t even begin to imagine how to change that. He closed his eyes and drifted into a dreamless sleep. It was, after all, an entirely hopeless wish.

\-----

The Pride and Prejudice debate was getting rather heated. Thomas was extolling the virtues of the TV show; Kitty and Fanny were insistent that the 2005 film was a masterpiece that couldn’t be bettered. Pat enjoyed both, but his feelings weren’t very strong on either. He was starting to sympathise with Robin’s unsubtle huffs. Film club had definitely taken a turn for the worst.

Pat could feel the Captain shifting at his side. He knew he was desperate to go off and do some more of his exercises; waves of boredom were practically radiating from him.

“Fancy sneaking off for a walk?” Pat whispered to him.

The Captain huffed, “They would notice. No one can _sneak off_ anywhere in this house, least of all us, Patrick.”

Pat nodded to Robin and Julian, who were casually strolling off for another game of chess, no doubt. Thomas, Kitty and Fanny didn’t pay them any attention as they went. They were too busy discussing Colin Firth to even notice.

“Well, they can.” He said, smiling up at the Captain, “So what do you say?”

“Very well then,” He replied, the ghost of a smile dancing on his lips.

\-----

As mad as the inside of Button House was, the blissful silence of the gardens more than made up for it. Spring had arrived early, and since Alison and Mike had finally battled the back garden into submission, flowers were sprouting everywhere.

The Captain walked with his back perfectly straight, every movement controlled and precise. Pat watched him from the corner of his eyes, equal parts wishing that he would just relax and that he would never change. A companionable silence hung between them. Pat was apprehensive to break it, being as comfortable as it was, but time alone with the Captain was rare enough these days and he was determined to make the most of it.

“I was watching something interesting on the telly the other day,” The Captain looked over at him expectantly. He looked softer in the sun, as if the hard lines of the shield he held around himself had eased off, batted away by Pat’s presence and the splendour of the bright spring afternoon.

“Go on.”

“Did you know that a dog’s sense of smell is 40 times better than ours?”

“I can’t say I did.”

Pat chuckled, “Amazing, isn’t it?” He thought for a second about _his_ dog, his beloved Goose. Just another thing he had left behind. But Pat shook that thought away before it ruined the moment.

“Did you have any pets?”

The Captain nodded, a strange look in his eyes, “A few dogs, when I was a boy. And yes, Patrick, they _were_ amazing. I expect you had plenty?”

“Oh yeah, my favourite animals, they are. We always had at least one dog when I was growing up. It was great.”

Pat rambled about them for a while, with the Captain making occasional comments as they walked side by side under the blossoming trees. The air that hung between them was cordial and the minutes slipped by like seconds. The sun soon started its descent into the horizon. And if Pat hadn’t been so caught up in memories of the past, he might have seen the Captain’s soft smile as he caught sight of the light dancing in Pat’s eyes.


End file.
